Category Archives: Bird watching

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Normally this little and rare (several hundred pairs in the entire Murmansk Region) birdie lives in a rather dispersed fashion, with one to three pairs per 10km of stream. But today we have been observing at least five individuals at once, diving into bubbling water to get their bugs and worms and what not.

A short while ago I made an announcement that Birding Across the Borders has come out. At the time it was not clear where and how to buy it. Proceed here, and for $36 this new guide on birdwatching in the Varanger-Norway-Russia area is yours.

The recent announcement of the publication of Birding Across the Borders has resulted in a bit of a flame in Alexandra’s Livejournal about the propriety and wisdom of advertising a guide that cannot, as of the moment, be bought unless one applied heroic effort to procure it.

The flame, however, has prompted Alexandra to review and compile existing local birdwatching offers, which I’m here sharing with you.

First, it is Kola Travel, with three tour options: north, south, or central Kola Peninsula. We personally know the company as real and active, and able to receive international travellers, but can’t say anything about their birdwatching tours as such.

At 4pm the Local History Section of the Kandalaksha Public Library (ul. Pervomayskaya 51, tel. 8 (815-33) 9-21-92) presents Vitaly Bianki, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Kandalaksha Nature Reserve, a Honorary Ecologist of the Russian Federation, and a Honorary Citizen of Kandalaksha.

The meeting is held in honor of the 90th birthday of Vitaly Bianki and 60 years of his working at the Kandalaksha Nature Reserve.

On head notice a Russian-to-English interpreter will be available at low or no fee.

Need an interpreter in Kandalaksha and area? Write to manfriday@yandex.ru or call +7 921 155 5432. More >>

Posted Monday, 14 December 2015

We are wins!

The project about development of birdtourism in Murmansk region became a finalist of regional competition “Polar Invest-express”, which provided by company “Corporation of devlopment”. Next step – start of it realisation. Also the project included to investplan of Murmansk region in 2016-2017.

An exhibition to present the Murmansk region and other arctic areas of Russia is happening in Murmansk from Nov. 17 to 19. There will be Murmansk region municipalities, joint booths of Russian arctic areas and foreign countries, and presentations by major industrial enterprises active in the Arctic.

Elena Tikhonova, the minister of economic development of the Murmansk region, says that the main aim of the exhibition is to help both residents and guests of the region understand the uniqueness and potential of each of the region’s municipalities, and to form a favourable investement image of the area among entrepreneurs and investors.

The project is intended to present business projects, active or potential, and to expose the infrastructure being developed in the Arctic zone of Russia and in the Murmansk region specifically. Its aim is to provide a platform for a dialogue to develop and discuss social and economic developmenet of the Arctic zone, to share the potential of municipalities to develop internal tourism, and to expand local history knowledge of the region’s residents.

The event’s organizers hope that the exhibition will be one of key events during the Murmansk International Business Week, and will be noticed by both residents and guests of the region.

July 31, 2015 with the support of the World Wildlife Fund ended the first part of the field work in the territory of the Regional Natural Park “Rybachi i Sredny Peninsula”, aimed at identifying potentially suitable locations for organizing tours for lovers of ornithology. As a result of the first results lead to the conclusion that the area of ​​the park is one of the most interesting locations for birding in the Murmansk region. Among the bird species encountered – Rough-legged Buzzard, White-tailed Eagle, bird colony on the Cape Sharapov. A key finding was the previously unknown colony of northern gannets on isl. Big Anikiev, there are about 500-700 birds. It is one the largest known colonies of gannets in the Murmansk region.

In June Nature Reserve’s scientists count all birds that nest on the islands. This is long and hard work. The Nature Reserve includes over 500 islands, some of them with over 100 nests of sea birds! Each island needs to be thoroughly inspected, with each nest found, each egg measured and its developmenet assessed, and rings put on all birds, young or mature, that can be caught. Although hard, this is very happy work. So many interesting and beautiful things can be seen in these June days. I’m happy to be participating in this work on Kandalaksha Nature Reserve’s islands for my 35th year now. Here are some photo shots to give an idea how it is to work on these islands: